We are back on familiar ground with the continent's mega Pay TV channel/satellite broadcaster DStv, but after Game of Thrones Season 5 and DStv's catch-up and express services, I had hoped DStv had learned its lesson about late broadcasts.
Two big shows from last year (in my not-so-humble opinion) The Flash and the Arrow, started airing their second season and Season 4 three weeks ago in the US but so far there's nothing on our screens. So I hit up Vuzu on twitter to find out the 411 and no response.
Now with these shows being very popular and big (in nerd circles anyway) you'd think that a channel that is supposedly "crazy about movies" would make sure you are able to see them as soon as possible as they like to punt their express service and how you can see it "first", "within 24 hours" - what about you try 3 months later?
After numerous attempts at tweeting the guys at Vuzu about when are they broadcasting The Flash (Season 2 ), I was unpleasantly surprised when a friend tweeted me a response from DStv that said both Flash and Arrow will start on the 12 January 2016.
Now in the age of social media, file sharing and pirate bay you don't expect such from a broadcaster, especially when you are trying to do the right thing: pay your tv license and pay a subscription and you are made to wait 3 months for a show you like - does that make sense at all? DStv is not the SABC or did i miss the memo?
The mind boggles at what the guys at the Naspers-owned entity are thinking? "Mmmh the show is not that big," or perhaps, "They won't notice that the season of Arrow and Flash too will be close to finished by the time we get them," or maybe they are that comfortable with their market share that they can take the audience for granted. How else do you explain it??
The worst part is Warner and DC are building a universe on TV for the superhero shows - we've seen the link between Arrow and Flash - more is coming with Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow where these characters move in between shows and share villains, storylines and an over arching plot.
I'm bitterly disappointed in DStv but i believe it's high time one gets an ADSL line, Netflix is coming next year and there are more options online. With this kind of attitude DStv's monopoly in the marketshare is bound to reduce every year - we just need to get our data costs low. There's hope with more and more internet penetration. One day we will reflect on the dominance of DStv like we reflect on the once dominance of Nokia - watch this space.